Ned Kelly

There have been many attempts to make a film about the famous Ned Kelly story, but none have totally succeeded. This British attempt was undertaken when the Australian film industry was at its lowest ebb, but neither British writer-director nor British pop star-actor Mick Jagger do the story justice.

The pace and tone of the story are both uneven, veering from slow to fast and serious to comic periodically. Personally I found the first half quite dull, though the pace picked up somewhat once the bushranging started, before grinding to an uncertain halt with a confusing climax at Glenrowan.

Similarly it was hard to take Mick Jagger seriously as an outlaw, as he came across as more of a mouthpiece for political statements about freedom and equality which seemed to have more to do with 1960s values than those of 19th Century Australia.

The music was another odd feature, with many US country songs and singers providing a series of outlaw songs to accompany the action, with mixed results.

Despite all these problems, the film does present the Kelly story in a fairly comprehensible way (apart from the ending), and the second half of the film was quite enjoyable. If another lead actor had been chosen this could have been much better.

Spectacular version , being basically a Western in all but locale , dealing with a known and ruthless bandit , stars Mick Jagger playing an unusual role . A film about the legendary outlaw whose story outgrew his life , it is based on the true events of famous 19th-century Outback rebel, an authentic legend which results to be the Australian's most ambiguous outlaw. A man (Mick Jagger) called Ned Kelly and his family are mistreated by Australians guards .He turns to steal horses that had been previously robbed to him . Shortly after , he finds it's impossibie for an Irishman in Queen Victoria's colony to walk the straight and narrow . Later on , there happens a manhunt proceeded by law enforcers , attempting to capture him , it results in merciless chases , violence and mayhem . He gets deeply drawn into crime life and eventually becomes a policemen killer , meanwhile , he falls in love . Kelly forms an Irish band battling the British Empire but the oppressed people called them heroes and are relentlessly pursued by astute , stubborn officials . The manhunt results in death and the eventual capture and execution of Kelly .The Saga of the Stringbark Creek massacre! . You can kill a man but not a legend !. When the law tried to silence him a legend was born !. The British Empire branded them as outlaws !. The oppressed called them heroes !.

The film is an Australian Western made completely by Aussies and Brits packing action , drama , shootouts, a love story and a lot of violence . It's an acceptably solid movie narrating the confrontation between the Irish rebels and the English forces and holds up pretty well too . A peculiar and disjointed film about a desperado roaming outlands of 19th-century Outback , resulting in violent and offbeat consequences. The essential of this picture is the outlaw hunt that results in a great load of gunplay and deaths until a breathtaking final confrontation. This is a period piece financied by Australian and British producers, but it seems to have lacked an empathy for the material, and director giving a lethargic filmmaking . The very contemporary Mick Jagger is miscast as a two-fisted and revenger outlaw , giving a passable acting , being accompanied by nice Australian actors , such as : Clarissa Kaye-Mason , Mark McManus , Bruce Barry and Frank Thring. Ned Kelly (1970) before being adapted in a Australian version 1960 by Sterling and in 2003 also titled Ned Kelly by Gregor Jordan starred by Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush . And in similar style : Mad Morgan (1976) with Dennis Hooper.

The movie benefits tremendously from Gerry Fisher's frequently ravishing cinematography , although is sometimes dark , as film longtime is developed at night and some interior scenarios. It contains a sensitive and rousing musical score with a lot of catching Irish songs .The motion picture was well photographed and competently directed by Tony Richardson who dramatizes accurately the life of this famous outlaw and his henchmen , containing some shortfalls , flaws and gaps . Richardson was a Brit craftsman who made a lot of films in all kinds of genres , getting successes anf flops . Richardson was a good writer and director who married Vanessa Redgrave and Jeanne Moreau , known for The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) , A taste of honey (1961), Tom Jones (1963), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), among others. Rating : 6/10 . The flick will appeal to Mick Jagger fans.

Even today the character of Ned Kelly is seen by most Australians as more sinned against than sinning. It's a pity then that director Tony Richardson and male lead Mick Jagger couldn't be afforded the same latitude.

Contrary to some comments in this forum, this film was never a cult hit or even very popular at all in Australia. When I studied film criticism during the 'seventies, "Ned Kelly" was often held up as the prime example of just how bad a movie could be. This view is the orthodox one among Australians of generations old enough to have seen it. The trouble with this orthodoxy is that is simply not true.

Jagger gives a surprisingly strong performance given his physical limitations. The story features no glaring inaccuracies of the Kelly legend and the screenplay is very well structured and paced. Above all, the cinematography is simply superb. Some of the scenes, such as the shoot out at Stringybark Creek are highly arresting.

All right, Waylon Jennings singing Shel Silverstein songs is a little corny and intrusive but that's about my only criticism. I would be surprised if the 2002 version is any better.

There's some confusion about Mick Jagger's accent - is he trying to sound Australian or Irish? Well, as the character Ned Kelly appears to have been born in Australia of Irish parents, who's to say what his accent sounded like? Probably pretty much like Cockney Mick puttin' on a brogue, actually. After all, the Australian accent is probably descended from Cockney and Irish.

And it's unfortunate that someone else is saying that there's a Neil Jordan directed version on the way, because actually it's Gregor Jordan. So there'll be no last-minute revelation that Ned was a woman, then... Phew!

This potted history of the infamous Australian outlaw benefits tremendously from Gerry Fisher's frequently ravishing photography but is ultimately doomed by its paint by numbers screenplay and the star turn by Mick Jagger (who reportedly dismissed the film as a "load of s**t"). Frankly, a bearded Jagger speaking in a weak brogue reminded me more of Warwick Davis in the Leprechaun series than it did of a legendary Robin Hood style badman. Shel Silverstein's faux-folk songs haven't aged well either.